Just need to chime in that if you’re lactose intolerant you can make excellent mashed potatoes that really taste potato-ey by starting with a good russet, adding lots of salt, and boiling for exactly 11 minutes in just enough water to cover the potatoes. No butter, cream, milk or anything needs to be added. Just a bit of pepper.
One more tip. After you drain the potatoes they still have a bit of water left in them. So return them to the cooking pot with the heat on very low for a few minutes and gently dry them out a bit more and cook out the last little bit of water. Makes a big difference, especially if you’ve got small pieces or if the potatoes crumbled during cooking.
Extra Virgin Olive Oil? (I had to look it up)
Ummm…garlic mashed potatoes.
That’s a point I hadn’t considered. Guess I just don’t really overboil them. Oh, and my spud of choice actually is Yukon Gold. It’s normally used for boiling or baking, but it’s spectacular mashed. I love it above all other varieties–it’s got this lovely tint and waxy textures.
So do you just sprinkle the fish eggs on top of the spuds, or what?
My MIL uses the water the potatoes are boiled in, instead of milk, a whole stick of margerine, and no salt. Now, THAT is mashed potatoes gone wrong.
Atleast yours were edible.
Hee. Reminds me of the time my father unwittingly threw out the leftover potato water when doing the dishes. Turns out mom wanted to freeze it for use in soup later. It’s so cute because now he will track her down to ask permission; he’ll show up at the door to the craft room with a pot of carrot water asking, did you want to keep this?
Emeril says to drain the potatoes, then put them back in the dry pan and evaporate more water from them before mashing. IIRC, he shook them around in the pan for a minute or two.
He used a lot of salt, but he also used unsalted butter.
I use salted butter, and cream. In for a penney, in for a pound. 
Once I left my girlfriend to the mashed potatoes and she came this close to mashing them with all the cooking water, but luckily I caught her in time. I didn’t realize people actually did this on purpose. Odd.
If I’m going with a non-classic mashed potatoes recipe, I will either warm some chicken broth, or retain ~ 2 cups of the potato water, just in case.
My God of All Things Cooking says you should warm the dairy before adding it to the taters.
I always do this and get great results.
Thank you.
Whaddaya mean you weren’t talking about me?
Lemon juice 
Top the potatoes with the caviar, or mix them in; it’s all good.
Thanks for the tips. I have considered, and I believe I now know what went wrong. I put a bit too much water in them to start, and left them on a bit too long–they were a lot easier to mash than they should have been, I think, and that should have clued me in.
Next time, it’s water barely to cover them, maybe a little broth in with the boiling water, and I’ll watch them very closely so I can take them out as soon as they need it. The main problem was that I boiled them the way I do potatoes for potato soup–except without adding chicken broth or bouillon, the way I do the soup potatoes.
That’s still too much water. I put a half an inch of water in the bottom of the pan; the potatos basically steam.
I don’t think it’s too much water. I cover the potatoes completely with water, and then some. I really don’t think you can have too much water as long as you don’t overcook the taters and make sure to drain them well. Really, I’ve had fine results this way, not bland at all. The Yukon Golds don’t seem to absorb a heck of a lot of water, anyway.
The reason I use very little water is because when you strain the water out, it’s potato water; it has potatoness in it. This potatoness is thus subtracted from the potatos. I put very little water in it and try to time it so the the water is mostly evaporated when the potatos are done, thus retaining all that potatoness.
Makes complete sense. I’ll have to give it a side-by-side test to see how much potatoness is leached out but, now that I think about it, I’m sure there must be a noticeable difference in the two methods.
You can bake the potatoes instead of boiling them. That way you retail ALL of the potatoness. I haven’t tried that method myself, though.